tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/colin-kaepernick-30791/articlesColin Kaepernick – The Conversation2018-01-31T23:29:48Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/899092018-01-31T23:29:48Z2018-01-31T23:29:48ZWhat Colin Kaepernick can teach us about citizenship<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204311/original/file-20180131-157470-1y4896n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Colin Kaepernick, centre, and his San Francisco teammates kneel during the national anthem before an NFL football game in 2016. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Colin Kaepernick played in only one NFL game in 2017, yet he made Time magazine’s short list for “<a href="http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2017-colin-kaepernick-runner-up/">Person of the Year</a>” and GQ named him “<a href="https://www.gq.com/story/colin-kaepernick-will-not-be-silenced">Citizen of the Year</a>.” </p>
<p>Kaepernick started a movement of players <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/colin-kaepernick-will-not-be-silenced">kneeling during the U.S. national anthem</a> to call attention to systemic racism and the de-humanization of Black lives. His protest reflects a broader statement that many Americans, in particular Black Americans and people of colour, do not have equal protections or safe access to even basic services. In short, they are not treated as citizens.</p>
<p>But, along the way, some football fans argued the protest he inspired did not belong within <a href="https://theconversation.com/protests-not-welcome-in-the-spectacle-of-sports-84817">the NFL</a>. Others corrupted his message as <a href="http://time.com/4477383/colin-kaepernick-says-he-is-not-ant-american-and-respects-the-military/">anti-American</a>. Some restricted Kaepernick’s argument to one that spoke out solely against <a href="http://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/chicago-bears/49ers-qb-colin-kaepernick-anthem-protest-about-change-not-just-police-violence">police brutality</a> in the African-American community.</p>
<p>We believe the fundamental tenet of Kaepernick’s message — racial injustice and social exclusion — is also critical when it comes to understanding and addressing recent environmental hazards and disasters in the United States.</p>
<p>The unequal outcomes of environmental harm - for example, why some areas seem so hard hit by storms or droughts, while others bounce back quickly - can be better understood when framed within a broader conception of “citizenship.” The many meanings of “citizen” have been a key focus for social scientists throughout history, including Aristotle, Cicero, Rousseau and Arendt; it has also been a primary focus of our research group at the University of British Columbia where we work on water governance and access.</p>
<h2>Many ways to think about citizenship</h2>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/citizenship/learners/citizenship-rights-and-responsibilities">U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services</a>, citizenship is not bound by race, religion or status — but by the shared values of freedom, liberty and equality. </p>
<p>In this sense, being an equal “citizen” means you feel welcomed and safe, that you have a voice in changing the status quo and that you’re governed by the same set of laws and principles as all other citizens. Any person, from a <a href="https://www.dar.org/">Daughter of the American Revolution</a> to a newly arrived <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/08/30/us/syrian-refugees-in-the-united-states.html">Syrian refugee</a>, is part of this notion of citizenship. </p>
<p>But this is an idealized vision of citizenship — it is not reality.</p>
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<span class="caption">Colin Kaepernick was named GQ magazine’s <em>Citizen of the Year</em> in 2017 for his activism.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)</span></span>
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<p>Kaepernick’s protest is about what and who makes a team and a nation. The debate over Kaepernick’s action can be extended to look at the important ways environmental justice is connected to notions of citizenship. </p>
<p>Preliminary results from our recent fieldwork in South Africa and Ghana — places where the relatively well off have no trouble accessing a full range of services while the poor have limited access to drinking water and sanitation — suggest that one’s sense of belonging and inclusion are strongly tied to the ability to access basic environmental services. </p>
<p>Kaepernick’s message can (and should) be extended to recent environmental crises, including in Flint, Mich., and Puerto Rico. This is a broader interpretation of Kaepernick’s message that demands our attention.</p>
<h2>Differentiated citizenship in Flint</h2>
<p>In making dinner, filling a glass with water or taking a shower, we rarely consider how a faucet is connected to being a citizen. But many people do not enjoy easy access to drinking water — as the case of Flint has so powerfully shown. </p>
<p>In 2014, <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2016/01/20/health/flint-water-crisis-timeline/index.html">the town’s water source</a> was changed to the Flint River from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department. This cost-saving mechanism, combined with <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/study-confirms-lead-got-flints-water">inadequate water treatment</a> procedures, exposed Flint’s mostly Black residents to lead contamination from their aging pipes.</p>
<p>Residents noticed the difference. Yet their repeated requests to local and state officials were rebuffed until evidence showed the water was dangerous and imperilled the health of thousands, particularly children. </p>
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<span class="caption">Signs warned students at the Flint Northwestern High School in Flint, Mich. about dangerous drinking water in May 2016.</span>
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<p>It costs <a href="http://nbc25news.com/news/local/51-days-left-of-funding-for-bottled-water-in-flint">$117,400 a day</a> to provide bottled water and filters to Flint’s residents, yet they still live with serious lead contamination. As do <a href="https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-lead-testing/">many other U.S. communities</a>.</p>
<p>There is a jarring contrast between Flint and nearby towns that are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/02/08/heres-the-political-history-that-led-to-flints-shocking-water-crisis/">affluent with a majority white population</a>. While residents of Flint are citizens, they are being excluded from equal benefits and protections. </p>
<p>Our research highlights the often underlying issues of citizenship — protection and belonging — behind environmental problems. If we want to address these crises we must better understand the root causes.</p>
<h2>Citizenship divides our political opinions</h2>
<p>Just as mutual strength and support unite a team, “citizenship” is a common thread that unites Americans — as it does people in all countries. Unfortunately, in the U.S., notions of citizenship have resulted in polarized political debates. Too often, citizenship is treated as a clear-cut issue of who belongs and has the legal status to stay or travel. </p>
<p>President Donald Trump’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-border-wall-gets-18-billion-price-tag-in-new-request-to-lawmakers/2018/01/05/34e3c47e-f264-11e7-b3bf-ab90a706e175_story.html">border wall</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/15/us/politics/visa-waiver-program-restrictions-homeland-security.html">unconstitutional visa bans</a> to keep Muslims out of the U.S. are two clear cases of citizenship as status. </p>
<p>But the in-custody deaths of <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32400497">Freddie Gray</a> and many others, the <a href="http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/michigan/flint-water-crisis/2017/03/07/flint-water-conference/98862674/">drinking water crisis in Flint</a> and, most recently, <a href="http://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/365901-puerto-rico-needs-congress-to-be-bolder-on-disaster-relief">Puerto Rico’s miserly</a> <a href="http://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/365901-puerto-rico-needs-congress-to-be-bolder-on-disaster-relief">disaster aid</a> after <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/10/what-happened-in-puerto-rico-a-timeline-of-hurricane-maria/541956/">Hurricane Maria</a> serve as examples of a different type of citizenship, one where “citizens” do not have equal access to protection and justice in their daily lives.</p>
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<span class="caption">A boy stands in front of a police cordon following the funeral of Freddie Gray in Baltimore on Apr. 27, 2015.</span>
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<p>Kaepernick has challenged us to rethink whether these values and rights are held equally across our differences. He has highlighted another way of thinking about citizenship: One that moves away from a strictly legal definition to involve inclusion, belonging, equity and protection — facets of everyday life.</p>
<h2>Rethinking our public policy</h2>
<p>Over 3.4 million U.S. citizens live in Puerto Rico. While the damage from Hurricane Maria may exceed US$30 billion, Trump made sure to <a href="http://deadline.com/2017/09/donald-trump-tweet-puerto-rico-broken-infrastructure-massive-debt-1202176860/">blame</a> Puerto Rico’s “broken infrastructure” and “old electrical grid” for the scale of the island’s suffering and damage. </p>
<p>Trump’s <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/puerto-rico-recovery-100-days-hurricane-maria-760965">own reasoning</a> suggests that broader forces of social exclusion are at play. Kaepernick’s kneeling can serve to raise awareness for environmental discrimination in Puerto Rico. Even as officials admit that as much as one third of the island’s citizens do not have access to the power grid, FEMA has announced it is cutting off <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/29/581511023/fema-to-end-food-and-water-aid-for-puerto-rico">emergency electricity and water supplies</a>. </p>
<p>The island’s short- and long-term vulnerability highlight the need to ensure that our public policy strives to provide equal access to services and protections for everyone.</p>
<p>Kaepernick and those participating in <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23takeaknee&amp;src=typd">#TakeaKnee</a> say they love America, but wholeheartedly believe the country can do better in upholding the principles of equality and justice ostensibly woven into the U.S. flag.</p>
<p>We hope that as Kaepernick’s message continues, it will extend into everyday facets of inclusion, equal protection and belonging — from getting a glass of clean water to receiving federal aid following a disaster.</p>
<p>Where Trump’s State of the Union speech touted “merit-based immigration,” the border wall and the visa lottery system as somehow unrelated to the fear-mongering over immigrants, Kaepernick is pushing us to interrogate what it means to be a citizen. </p>
<p>A team supports, welcomes and respects its members, and society must also strive for this. Something to think about during the Super Bowl, especially if during the national anthem, NFL players take a knee.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89909/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott McKenzie receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the University of British Columbia. He is affiliated with the EDGES research group at the University of British Columbia and the International Water Resources Association.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sameer H. Shah receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. He is affiliated with the EDGES research group at the University of British Columbia.
</span></em></p>Much of the discussion about "Take a Knee" has overlooked the issues of justice and social exclusion, and especially environmental matters. That's something to think about during the Super Bowl.Scott McKenzie, PhD Candidate, Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES), University of British ColumbiaSameer H. Shah, PhD Candidate, Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES), University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/848172017-10-10T22:44:04Z2017-10-10T22:44:04ZProtests not welcome in the spectacle of sports<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188420/original/file-20171002-12126-z900uw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In this Dec. 18, 2016, file photo, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick (7) and two of his teammates kneel during the playing of the national anthem before an NFL game.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP/John Bazemore)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s become a regular feature of National Football League games this season: Players staging protests by “taking a knee” during the playing of the U.S. national anthem before their games.</p>
<p>The protest escalated after President Donald Trump gave an <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/09/trump-urges-nfl-owners-to-fire-players-who-protest/540897/">inflammatory speech in Alabama</a> in which he said NFL owners should “fire” any players who did not stand for the national anthem. Trump even instructed Vice-President Mike Pence <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/08/politics/vice-president-mike-pence-nfl-protest/index.html">to walk out of a game</a> on Oct. 8 after players once again knelt during the anthem.</p>
<p>The kneeling protest was started <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/07/sports/colin-kaepernick-nfl-protests.html">last year by Colin Kaepernick</a>. When asked why he did not stand, Kaepernick <a href="http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000691077/article/colin-kaepernick-explains-why-he-sat-during-national-anthem">said</a>: “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of colour…There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”</p>
<p>Though several athletes have made gestures in support of Kaepernick, no team signed him for the 2017 season, effectively banning him from the NFL. “It baffles me that our protest is still being misconstrued as disrespectful to the country, flag and military personnel,” said Eric Reid, a safety for the San Francisco 49ers. “We chose it because it’s exactly the opposite.” </p>
<p>Kaepernick and the subsequent protests <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/25/us/anthem-protests-burning-nfl-jerseys-trnd/index.html">have caused an uproar</a>. Normally pro athletes are expected to happily play and not comment on matters off the field. The scope of allowable topics for professional athletes include game strategy, training and clichés about wanting to win and do well. </p>
<h2>Selling the ‘product’</h2>
<p>The main reason owners, athletes and generally the media stay away from mixing politics and sport is that it allows them to sell their product more easily, which in turn brings in more revenue from endorsements, ticket sales and ratings. </p>
<p>In this way, professional high-performance sport conforms to capitalist ideology. Ideologies, of course, are designed to control us. One way capitalist ideology wins in professional sports is by creating spectacles — highly orchestrated representations for fans to watch. </p>
<p>This phenomenon of revenue over authentic substance has been described by several scholars. In the 1960s, influential French philosopher Guy Debord wrote the <a href="http://library.nothingness.org/articles/SI/en/pub_contents/4">Society of the Spectacle</a>, in which he noted: people go to “the spectacle” — or in this case, the game — to “fall asleep.” </p>
<p>As Debord explains it, “the spectacle” has a kind of numbing effect. Yes, there is some excitement, some highs and lows, but generally we don’t go to the game to find out more about each other or to discuss social inequalities. We go to the game to get lulled.</p>
<p>While fans are sometimes called upon to donate to charities, they are charities the owners or league has chosen — <a href="http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000837416/article/nfl-teams-players-donate-to-hurricane-harvey-relief">worthy causes</a> like the recent hurricanes that hit the United States. </p>
<p>But fans are never officially called upon to do anything that would disturb the social status quo, such as donating to a racial justice fund. This despite the fact that more than two-thirds of NFL players are Black. There are <a href="https://football.realgm.com/wiretap/37130/Blacks-Represent-70-Percent-Of-NFL-Players-Fan-Base-83-Percent-White">no majority Black owners in the NFL</a> and Michael Jordan is the only Black owner in the National Basketball Association.</p>
<p>This is what Debord meant by numbing through the spectacle. The effect of the numbing on NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB fans — and here I am talking about the large majority of fans who are middle class and white — don’t want to be called upon to change, or even to question, our inequalities.</p>
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<span class="caption">Members of the San Francisco 49ers kneel during the national anthem before the game against the Indianapolis Colts on Oct. 8, 2017. Vice-President Mike Pence left the game after the national anthem.</span>
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<p>Many pro athletes who are not Black also feel no need to question or counter social injustice. For example, at the same time as the NBA Champion Golden State Warriors declined an invitation to go the White House, and with more than 200 NFL players choosing to kneel during the national anthem, the NHL Champion Pittsburgh Penguins <a href="https://theconversation.com/history-shows-sidney-crosby-could-have-stood-up-to-racial-injustice-85065">accepted the White House invitation</a> the following day without any apparent consideration to their fellow athletes in the NFL.</p>
<h2>Professional athletes entertain, they don’t protest</h2>
<p>This is how it’s been as long as these sporting entertainment events, these spectacles, have been around since the early 20th century. There have been exceptions: Interestingly, most athletes who have gone off script have been Black. They include Jim Brown, Althea Gibson, Muhammad Ali, John Carlos and now Colin Kaepernick. </p>
<p>These courageous athletes figured out ways to resist the narrow path laid out for them and instead found spaces to articulate their authentic selves. </p>
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<span class="caption">Trailblazing tennis star Althea Gibson, shown here competing at Wimbledon in 1956, was one athlete who spoke up against racial inequities in sport.</span>
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<p>Yet the notions of the spectacle — and capitalist ideology — have kept both fans and athletes numb, and our resistance within this is hard to find. </p>
<p>For example, in the run-up to last year’s Super Bowl, reporters asked New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady what he thought about Trump and he said: “I don’t always agree with my friends.” Brady <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/sports/football/tom-brady-national-anthem-new-england-patriots.html">appears to have changed his position somewhat</a> and recently said he disagreed with what Trump said about the national anthem protests, calling it divisive.</p>
<p>For Brady, this is a small act of resistance, though he’s unlikely to say more: He probably doesn’t want to risk going off-script and possibly losing revenue or advertising contracts.</p>
<h2>Sportsmen banding together or splintering apart?</h2>
<p>In the game, the unity between pro athletes and fans is superficial and exists only for the sake of the game, or the team. This superficial unity is belied by everyday social contradictions and disparities. In the U.S. and Canada, there are profound disparities in the way people are treated based on race in terms of access to services, jobs, health care and opportunities. </p>
<p>From the point of view of the spectacle, or the game, the average sports fans don’t see these contradictions. They are concealed by the distractions of the game itself: The score, the narrative and the subplots. One of the main places this concealment happens is through the playing of the national anthem before games. The anthem is almost like a prayer, and everyone standing for it demonstrates we are aligned for the same purpose — the highest purpose here is the game. </p>
<p>Here is where the main irony lies at the heart of most U.S. professional sports. </p>
<p>Despite the success in this arena, most Black athletes live in worlds where socio-economic contradictions — such as gun violence, police repression and brutality and economic insecurity are the daily realities they must navigate in order to survive. Many Black lives are cut short by stray bullets, police brutality and lack of basic health care.</p>
<p>Almost all Black athletes in North American professional sports are connected to or related to people whose lives are being lost in such a manner on a regular basis. It sometimes seems as though no Black athlete is able to free him or herself from these social contradictions in spite of their financial wealth or fame. </p>
<p>For example, recently NBA superstar LeBron James had his Los Angeles mansion <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/31/sport/lebron-james-racist-graffiti-incident/index.html">sprayed with racist graffiti</a> on the eve of the 2017 NBA Finals. “Hate in America,” LeBron said, “especially for African-Americans, is living every day. Even though it’s concealed most of the time.”</p>
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<p>As a result of these racist contradictions, some athletes, like Kaepernick, feel forced to expose racial inequalities. Within the confines of the spectacle, the main place to do that is the national anthem. Kneeling is an attempt to bring their reality to the game and to disturb the superficial unity. </p>
<p>The “Take a Knee” protesters are calling on fellow athletes, fans, owners and journalists — the majority of whom are white and devoted to the spectacle — to question their desire to be numbed. </p>
<p>Such was the sentiment expressed by white San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich when he said: “People have to be made to feel uncomfortable, and especially white people, because we’re comfortable. Most of us really have no clue what being born white means. You have advantages that are systemically, culturally, psychologically there. And they have been built up and cemented for hundreds of years.”</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gamal Abdel-Shehid does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The main reason owners and athletes stay away from mixing politics and sport is that it allows them to sell their product more easily. In doing so, pro sports conforms to classic capitalist ideology.Gamal Abdel-Shehid, Associate Professor School of Kinesiology and Health Science, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/850652017-10-05T21:56:51Z2017-10-05T21:56:51ZHistory shows Sidney Crosby could have stood up to racial injustice<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189676/original/file-20171010-17691-kxfpdp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">blank</span> </figcaption></figure><p>A champion athlete, who is both white and not American, has the chance, at some personal cost, to protest racial injustice in the United States. Should he avoid taking a stand or lend support to a protest that doesn’t directly affect him?</p>
<p>The question has been asked of Sidney Crosby. Crosby and the Stanley Cup-winning Pittsburgh Penguins visited the White House, and his <a href="http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/sidney-crosby-supports-penguins-decision-go-white-house/">statement in advance of the visit that it was “a great honour”</a> came amid a <a href="http://www.dw.com/en/nba-star-curry-and-golden-state-warriors-nix-white-house-visit/a-40655345">boycott of the White House by the NBA champion Golden State Warriors</a>, and Trump’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/opinion/columnists/trump-race-nfl-nba.html">racist criticisms of NFL players’ taking a knee to protest police brutality against black Americans</a>.</p>
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<p>Almost 50 years ago, the question was asked of another white non-American: Australian sprinter <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/oct/05/guardianobituaries.australia">Peter Norman</a>. The two athletes’ starkly different responses to similar situations of racial tension highlight the extent to which Crosby, the Penguins and the NHL — in the face of profound injustice — failed to rise to the occasion.</p>
<h2>A lasting image of protest</h2>
<p>The photo of African-American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos on the podium at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, heads bowed, each raising a black-gloved fist in a Black Power salute, taking a stand for racial equality and human rights, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/09/24/they-didnt-takeaknee-the-black-power-protest-salute-that-shook-the-world-in-1968/">remains an iconic image</a>.</p>
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<span class="caption">Australian Peter Norman, left, supported the Black Power protests of U.S. athletes Tommie Smith, centre, and John Carlos during the medal ceremonies for the 200 metre sprint at the 1968 Olympics.</span>
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<p>Norman, the silver medallist, is the guy standing next to them on the podium. He’s wearing an Olympic Project for Human Rights patch, borrowed from an American rower to show solidarity with Carlos and Smith. (Incidentally, Norman was also responsible for suggesting that Smith and Carlos share a single pair of gloves after Carlos forgot his, back at the Olympic Village.)</p>
<p>Norman, like Crosby, was in a privileged position to do something. Or he could have used his non-Americanness, or his whiteness, as an excuse to stay out of a domestic U.S. racial struggle, as Crosby did.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189665/original/file-20171010-17667-1fv85y9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Donald Trump speaks during a ceremony to honour the 2017 NHL Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins on Oct. 10, 2017, at the White House.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Instead, Norman played a crucial supporting role in what has become a legendary stand for human rights.</p>
<p>When Smith and Carlos told Norman what they were going to do, they asked him if he believed in human rights. Norman, driven by his strong Salvation Army faith, <a href="https://empirerunnersblog.org/2016/05/01/who-was-peter-norman-part-2-by-brad-zanetti/">said he did</a>. His ultimate response, which should be taught in schools worldwide, was the opposite of Crosby’s: “I will stand with you.”</p>
<h2>The price of taking a stand</h2>
<p>Norman did so despite the palpable threat of assassination in the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/observer/gallery/2008/jan/17/1">violent summer of 1968</a>. He faced the threat of repercussions from a controversy-averse International Olympic Committee and a home country still operating under an <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-politics-explainer-the-white-australia-policy-74084">overtly racist White Australia immigration policy</a>.</p>
<p>He did so because he believed deeply in human equality. As Carlos remarks in the excellent Norman-focused documentary, <a href="http://salutethemovie.com/"><em>Salute</em></a>: “Peter didn’t have to take that button. Peter wasn’t from the United States. Peter was not a Black man. Peter didn’t have to feel what I felt. But he was a man.” That was enough.</p>
<p>Norman, like Smith and Carlos, paid an enormous price for his stand. For wearing that patch, Australia blacklisted him from the 1972 Olympics despite being the fifth-fastest sprinter in the world at the time (he continues to hold the Australian 200 metre record). He was not even invited to take part in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, attending instead as the guest of an appreciative U.S. Track and Field Federation. </p>
<p>Long after the U.S. recognized Carlos and Smith as heroes (as their <a href="http://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/17664885/olympic-sprinters-tommie-smith-john-carlos-support-colin-kaepernick-anthem-protests">spiritual successor, former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick</a> will be, in time), Norman remained a pariah: <a href="https://theconversation.com/i-will-stand-with-you-finally-an-apology-to-peter-norman-10107">the Australian government only apologized for Australia’s treatment of him in 2012, six years after his death</a>.</p>
<h2>No regrets</h2>
<p>Despite the hardship, Norman did not regret his actions. For him, doing the right thing took precedence over doing the easy thing.</p>
<p>Crosby’s and the Penguins’ actions fall short of Norman’s example. What’s more, in trying not to choose sides — between African-Americans who fear for their lives around police and a president who finds it hard to condemn neo-Nazis — they’ve implicitly revealed what they’re prepared to tolerate. As Lt.-General David Morrison, the former Australian Chief of Army, <a href="https://youtu.be/QaqpoeVgr8U">noted in a similar context</a>, “The standard you walk past, is the standard you accept.”</p>
<p>And yet, while it is profoundly disappointing that Crosby, the Penguins and the NHL have missed their Peter Norman moment, Norman himself probably would not have judged them too harshly. As he remarked in <em>Salute</em>: “In a victory ceremony for the Olympics, there’s three guys that stand up there. Each one’s been given about a square metre of God’s earth to stand on. And what any one of the three choose to do with his little square metre of earth at that stage is entirely up to them.”</p>
<p>Ultimately, what Crosby and his fellow Penguins choose to do with their square metre is a matter for their own consciences. For others, graced with the opportunity to stand with the victims of injustice, Peter Norman offers a shining example of what moral courage looks like.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188868/original/file-20171004-31295-juvszj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tommie Smith, left, and John Carlos, right, who gave the historic Black Power salutes at the 1968 Olympics, reunite for the final time with the third man on the podium that year as they as they act as pallbearers for Peter Norman at his funeral in Melbourne, Australia in 2006.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85065/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Blayne Haggart does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Almost 50 years ago, a white, non-American athlete supported Black athletes protesting racial injustice. Peter Norman paid a price for taking a stand. Canada's Sidney Crosby is no Peter Norman.Blayne Haggart, Associate Professor of Political Science, Brock UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/848102017-09-29T18:58:53Z2017-09-29T18:58:53ZThe difference between black football fans and white football fans<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188080/original/file-20170928-1449-1qygp07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New Orleans Saints fans cheer from the stands during a game against the Denver Broncos in 2016.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Broncos-Saints-Football/6587d340e6dd439a8a8f5bcf1f3483cb/155/0">Jeff Haynes/AP Photo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A significant portion of the NFL’s fan base <a href="https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/poll-majority-of-americans-disagree-with-colin-kaepernicks-protest/">has reacted negatively</a> to the national anthem protests of the past year. The responses tend to follow a pattern:</p>
<p><em>The stadium is no place for political protest. The game is a color-blind meritocracy. To protest football is to protest America.</em></p>
<p>But according to <a href="http://plaza.ufl.edu/tsorek/articles/Americanfootball.pdf">a study we published last year</a>, white football fans and black football fans hold very different views about the relationship between football and national pride. And it might explain why there have been such divergent, emotional responses to the protests.</p>
<h2>Black Americans love football, but…</h2>
<p>Social scientists who study sports have <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=9icbi39vm8AC&amp;dq=george+sage+sport&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwiqwKin1MjWAhXFPiYKHb5jAGkQ6AEINDAC">long argued</a> that sports are a powerful political stage. Popular wisdom, on the other hand, <a href="https://www.theodysseyonline.com/sports-politics-should-never-mix">tends to maintain</a> that sports are inherently apolitical, and should remain that way. </p>
<p>It’s true that until recently, visible black protests in American sports were rare. Yes, Muhammad Ali <a href="http://www.edgeofsports.com/product/Whats-My-Name-Fool/">was outspoken about politics</a> and became a symbol of black protest in the 1960s. And there’s <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zpYxyEMDJjsC&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;dq=dave+zirin+john+carls&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwivm5_JzMrWAhVF-lQKHQeLBjEQ6AEIJjAA#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false">the famous instance</a> of Tommie Smith and John Carlos raising their fists in the 1968 Olympic Games. But generally, athletes have not waded into politics, no doubt in part because of the influence of corporate interests and sponsors. (Michael Jordan, when asked why he wouldn’t endorse a black Democratic candidate for Senate in 1990, <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Second_Coming.html?id=BA5mPwAACAAJ">famously said</a>, “Republicans buy shoes too.”) </p>
<p>So for many white fans, the racial issues addressed by the protests upend what they see as the innocent, colorless patriotism of football. </p>
<p>But for black fans, feelings of alienation toward the imposed patriotism in NFL games have been stewing for a while. And it may be that black athletes finally decided to respond to the attitudes of their black fans.</p>
<p>In our study, we aggregated 75 opinion polls between 1981 and 2014, and compared the relationship between national pride and football fandom among white and black Americans. </p>
<p>We found that since the early 1980s, national pride has been in decline among American men and women of all races. But among black men, this decline has been especially sharp. At the same time, it’s also been accompanied by a marked increase in their interest in the NFL. </p>
<p>We suspect that this inverse relationship isn’t coincidental. </p>
<h2>Which Americans do patriotic displays speak to?</h2>
<p>For decades, the league and broadcasting networks <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0193723508319715">have conflated football with patriotism</a>. Massive American flags get spread across the field before the game, celebrities sing highly produced renditions of the national anthem, military jets streak across the skies and teams routinely honor veterans and active service members. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188079/original/file-20170928-22252-1v3sknm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188079/original/file-20170928-22252-1v3sknm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip"></a>
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<span class="caption">Fighter jets do a flyover and military personnel hold a giant American flag before an NFL game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Baltimore Ravens.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Ravens-Eagles-Football/105f92a2cbc04ff4bc685419399f0b51/7/0">Mel Evans/AP Photo</a></span>
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<p>Networks air segments about the players’ lives and team histories that emphasize racial integration and national unity. They also promote the narrative that hard work and following the rules lead to success on the field – the crux of the American Dream. </p>
<p>Many football fans might embrace these displays, which reinforce their beliefs and reflect their view of the country as a <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/online/poll-majority-of-whites-see-america-as-colorblind-nearly-80-of-african-americans-do-not/">colorblind</a> <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/howard-steven-friedman/americas-incomplete-thoug_b_1696282.html">meritocracy</a>.</p>
<p>Indeed, our study did show that enthusiasm for football and national pride are interrelated. </p>
<p>But the nature of this relationship depends on your race. </p>
<p>Only among white Americans did we find a positive association between football fandom and national pride: Football fans were much more likely to express high levels of national pride than white Americans who weren’t football fans. Among African-Americans, on the other hand, there was a negative association. This suggests that when black fans watch their favorite team play, it’s a very different type of experience. </p>
<p>And this was happening long before Colin Kaepernick decided to take a knee. </p>
<h2>Black identity and American identity</h2>
<p>W.E.B Du Bois once observed that for black Americans, <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Souls_of_Black_Folk.html?id=lTXYAAAAMAAJ&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false">a fundamental tension exists</a> between their American identities and their black identities. We now know <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=A2SXphY-DvIC&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;source=gbs_ge_summary_r&amp;cad=0#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false">from other studies</a> that African-Americans tend to see themselves as less “typically American” than other races. Meanwhile, among white Americans there’s a common tendency <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Thierry_Devos/publication/7994359_America_White/links/0912f4fa17cfc9118e000000/America-White.pdf(3):447.">to link American national identity with whiteness</a>.</p>
<p>It could be that the symbols of American national pride – so visible during football games – give white fans the chance to unite their national pride with their fandom. To them, the fact that African-Americans make up between <a href="http://www.celticcreek.org/images/nflreport.pdf">65 and 69 percent</a> of all NFL players is simply part of the country’s ethos of “inclusion.” </p>
<p>But for black fans, the overrepresentation of African-American athletes might mean something else. Football broadcasts can create highly visible opportunities to express black prowess, pride and resistance. At the same time, watching wildly successful black players on the football field might sharpen the contrast of <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=QQglDwAAQBAJ&amp;lpg=PP1&amp;dq=racial%20discrimination%20in%20America&amp;pg=PP1#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false">racial injustice off the field</a>. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/2749514?seq=1#p5age_scan_tab_contents">studies have shown</a> that the more black Americans emphasize their blackness, the less likely they are to have patriotic feelings.</p>
<p>Together, this could create a situation where black fans are prone to reject the popular national narrative that links football to a wider, ethnically blind meritocratic order. To many of them, football isn’t connected to any sort of national identity in a positive way, so it’s easier for black fans to press successful black athletes to protest the status quo and use their platforms to address issues of discrimination and inequality. </p>
<p>In other words, even before black athletes started taking an explicit stand, their presence and success on the field created the conditions to question the dominant ideology of a meritocratic, colorblind society. National debates about inequality, police brutality and incarceration clearly resonate with many players, and they’ve been pushed to respond. </p>
<p>Looking at it this way, these protests were only a matter a time.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84810/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A recent study might explain why there's been such divergent, emotional responses to the NFL protests.Tamir Sorek, Professor of Sociology, University of FloridaRobert G. White, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/846052017-09-26T04:09:37Z2017-09-26T04:09:37ZWhy US sports stars are taking a knee against Trump<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187484/original/file-20170926-10935-14p6v2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">NFL players from many teams have knelt or linked arms in protest during the playing of the national anthem.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Paul Childs</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>US President Donald Trump is continuing his public attacks on prominent black athletes. Late last week, he urged National Football League (NFL) team owners to fire players who knelt in protest during the playing of the national anthem before the game. “Get that son of a bitch off the field,” Trump <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/22/politics/donald-trump-alabama-nfl/index.html">told a partisan crowd</a> in the conservative state of Alabama. </p>
<p>The next day, he disinvited National Basketball Association (NBA) champion Steph Curry from the White House.</p>
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<a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/911572182060453893"></a>
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<p>Trump’s remarks rankled black athletes in the NBA and NFL. His disinvitation of Curry, who is black, sounded a racial dog-whistle to those who believe African-Americans do not belong in the White House.</p>
<p>Trump’s subsequent Twitter statements about the NFL suggest deeply troubling assumptions about the proper place of black athletes in public spaces.</p>
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<h2>The history of White House visits</h2>
<p>The invitation of athletes to the White House appears apolitical. Presidents have customarily extended invitations to everyone from Little League World Series to Super Bowl winners. However, tradition has also always been intertwined with America’s racial politics.</p>
<p>Major League Baseball (MLB) World Series winners have regularly visited the White House since the 1920s, before black athletes <a href="https://www.loc.gov/collections/jackie-robinson-baseball/articles-and-essays/baseball-the-color-line-and-jackie-robinson/1940-to-1946/">broke the colour line</a> (they were excluded from playing in the league at the time).</p>
<p>The first NBA team to visit the White House was the Boston Celtics in 1963, invited by then-president John F. Kennedy. The 1960s Celtics represented white America in the face of an increasingly African-American league.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The Boston Celtics visit the White House in 1963.</span></figcaption>
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<p>White House visits seem innocuous, but they are political spectacles, with handshakes, photos and memorabilia exchanges. When athletes meet the president, they are used as vehicles to promote specific policies. </p>
<p>In the waning years of the Cold War, Ronald Reagan used these visits to symbolise American power, vigour and confidence through athletic achievement. In 1988, for example, Reagan tossed a tight spiral to visiting NFL wide receiver Ricky Sanders. Cameras caught this moment and transformed the president into a game-winning quarterback.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Ronald Reagan toasts the Washington Redskins.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Not all athletes appreciate being used as a tool for policy. Increasingly, they have rejected invitations to the White House to express their discontent. The boycotts by whole teams like Curry’s Golden State Warriors, however, is a new kind of demonstration made even more powerful by the fame of their top players.</p>
<p>A few days after the NBA finals concluded, Curry <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/06/14/stephen-curry-says-he-wouldnt-visit-white-house-if-invited/">promised to avoid the White House</a>. His teammates have been effusive in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGrgOcH-cKM">their support</a> of his stance. Coach Steve Kerr <a href="https://www.thescore.com/news/1380850">said</a> “he [Trump] was going to break up with us before we could break up with him”. </p>
<p>The team also released <a href="http://www.nba.com/warriors/news/statement-20170923/">a statement</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In lieu of a visit to the White House, we have decided that we’ll constructively use our trip to the nation’s capital in February to celebrate equality, diversity, and inclusion – the values that we embrace as an organisation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Trump’s comments have had the unintended effect of galvanising support of the whole league behind the Warriors. NBA players have taken to Twitter to openly mock him. The NBA’s biggest star, LeBron James, tweeted:</p>
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<p>Alluding to the investigation of the Trump campaign’s ties with Russia, Robin Lopez tweeted:</p>
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<a href="https://twitter.com/rolopez42/status/911702252993122304"></a>
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<h2>Teeming player protests</h2>
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<span class="caption">Colin Kaepernick (number seven) kneels during the national anthem.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>In the NFL, then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/opinion/colin-kaepernick-football-protests.html?mcubz=3">decision</a> to kneel during the national anthem was a protest originally directed against police violence, not Trump (who was not president at the time).</p>
<p>But Trump’s words have now shifted the debate onto him, added legitimacy to the demonstrations, and perhaps roused a force powerful enough to battle his own celebrity brand. Trump has taken on the NFL before <a href="http://fortune.com/2017/09/24/donald-trump-nfl-usfl/">and lost</a>.</p>
<p>The NFL players’ union and the NFL commissioner – two sides usually at loggerheads – expressed joint anger over Trump’s intervention in the league’s affairs. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell lamented Trump’s <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/352031-nfl-commissioner-trumps-divisive-comments-show-a-lack-of">“lack of respect”</a> for the league. And the head of the union, DeMaurice Smith, <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/nflpa-apos-never-back-down-145606076.html">defiantly thundered</a> that the NFL Players Association would:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… never back down when it comes to protecting the constitutional rights of our players as citizens.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The national anthem protests, which initially divided the league and the public, have become ubiquitous. On Sunday afternoon, whole teams, including the Pittsburgh Steelers, <a href="http://www.espn.com.au/nfl/story/_/id/20801902/pittsburgh-steelers-remain-locker-room-national-anthem">remained in their locker rooms</a> in a forceful rejection of Trump’s remarks. The Ravens and the Jaguars, playing in London, knelt for the American national anthem but <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/24/in-rebuke-to-trump-ravens-and-jaguars-take-a-knee-in-london-during-us-national-anthem.html">stood respectfully</a> for “God Save the Queen”.</p>
<p>The kneeling players have been joined by <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/jaguars-owner-shad-khan-unites-players-defiance-trump-143949834.html">team owners</a>, <a href="http://variety.com/2017/digital/news/rico-lavelle-national-anthem-nfl-video-1202569454/">performers</a> and <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/cheerleader-kneeled-national-anthem-protest-goes-viral-195354161.html">cheerleaders</a>. The protest even spread to the more conservative and white MLB, when the Oakland A’s Bruce Maxwell became the first player to <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/a%E2%80%99s-bruce-maxwell-first-mlb-player-to-kneel-for-anthem/ar-AAsoEz1">kneel during the national anthem</a>.</p>
<p>Trump’s ill-timed comments have given legitimacy to claims of his racial animus. Until he disavows them, we can expect to see more players signalling their disapproval of his presidency.</p>
<p>The growing protests are a healthy new development for American sports. For too long, athletes have been the tools of statesmen. Today, however, they have begun to realise their power to be activists and undermine the political plans of the US president.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84605/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Keith Rathbone does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Donald Trump’s ill-timed comments on protests by America's elite athletes have given legitimacy to claims of his racial animus.Keith Rathbone, Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/703972017-01-16T19:06:11Z2017-01-16T19:06:11ZSit on hands or take a stand: why athletes have always been political players<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152585/original/image-20170112-18325-plpjgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">NFL star Colin Kaepernick has declined to stand for the US national anthem.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Robert Hanashiro/Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is sometimes said that sport ought to be separate from politics, or that politics should be removed from sport. These sentiments are well meaning – if idealistic. </p>
<p>Sport is variously part of government policy, international relations, commercial interests, integrity issues, gender dynamics, and so on. Sport has never been, and never will be, a cocoon within which wider societal issues are unrelated. </p>
<p>All that said, there is <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/routledge-handbook-of-sport-and-politics/oclc/960040406&amp;referer=brief_results">robust debate</a> about the nature and extent of political influence in sport, and the contributions of sport to social and political issues.</p>
<h2>Athlete voices</h2>
<p>The role of athletes is intriguing: as representatives of a sport or even a nation, they have substantial public profiles.</p>
<p>Athletes are well-known for on-field exploits, though much less so in terms of their off-field persona, about which the public rarely hears – unless media draws attention to an <a href="https://theconversation.com/athletes-of-influence-the-role-model-refrain-in-sport-52569">indiscretion</a>.</p>
<p>The off-field contributions of many athletes, such as by contributing to charities or virtuous social causes, are rarely the subject of media discussion. There is, nonetheless, much more public interest should an athlete present a dissenting perspective in respect of a sociopolitical issue via sport. </p>
<p>Negative refrains typically include: athletes should “stick to sport”; that they are “using sport” to advance a political agenda; and (like other celebrities) they are not credible advocates because they live in an elitist “bubble”.</p>
<h2>Perspectives past and present</h2>
<p>Timing and context are crucial. In 1968, the <a href="http://time.com/3880999/black-power-salute-tommie-smith-and-john-carlos-at-the-1968-olympics/">Black Power salute</a> at the Mexico City Olympics was widely <a href="http://bleacherreport.com/articles/40675-iconic-olympic-moments-the-black-power-salute">reviled</a> in the US. During the 21st century that protest has, for the most part, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/us/29bcintel.html">been acclaimed as courageous</a>. </p>
<p>In 1964, Cassius Clay converted to Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Ali. In 1966, when drafted to serve in Vietnam, Ali was a conscientious objector – speaking openly against the war. Taken together, these decisions <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/news/archive/2016/06/muhammad-ali-vietnam/485717/">made Ali</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… a national pariah — perhaps the most hated man in the country. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Today, by contrast, Ali is very fondly remembered and widely admired for sticking to his <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/elan-divon/muhammad-ali-death_b_10319050.html">principles</a> and demonstrating <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/kevincashman/2016/06/06/the-four-greatest-leadership-lessons-from-the-greatest-muhammad-ali/#512323433943">leadership</a> for minority causes.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152586/original/image-20170112-18349-wcg4gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152586/original/image-20170112-18349-wcg4gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=237&amp;fit=clip"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Muhammad Ali is today fondly remembered and widely admired for sticking to his principles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Australia, sport has also been a forum for robust debate about sociopolitical issues. In 1994, Cathy Freeman – both Australian and Aboriginal – carried the <a href="http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/blogs/on-this-day/2016/07/on-this-day-aboriginal-flag-first-flown">flags of those groups</a> during a <a href="https://www.sen.com.au/news/2016/10/09/gainsford-taylor-on-flag-criticism-it-was-ridiculous/">victory lap at the Commonwealth Games</a>. To some non-Indigenous critics, this suggested that Freeman was less than patriotic – to them there was only one flag, not two.</p>
<p>Fast forward to the Sydney 2000 Olympics: Freeman was anointed to <a href="http://australianpolitics.com/2000/09/15/cathy-freeman-lights-olympic-flame.html">light the cauldron</a> at an opening ceremony, where the symbolism of <a href="http://library.la84.org/OlympicInformationCenter/OlympicReview/2000/OREXXVI35/OREXXVI35e.pdf">reconciliation for all Australians</a> was manifest. </p>
<p>Freeman handled the pressure of the spotlight, going on to win gold in the 400m track event. She again carried the <a href="http://en.espn.co.uk/olympic-sports/sport/story/152105.html">two ensigns entwined during a victory lap</a>, despite the Aboriginal flag not being recognised by either the Australian or International Olympic committees. This time the officials looked the other way and there was no public hullabaloo.</p>
<h2>Geopolitics</h2>
<p>The Beijing 2008 Olympics played out amid a backdrop of international debate about the sovereign status of Tibet, which China was now claiming as its own territory. </p>
<p>In the lead-up to the Olympics, several athletes took a vocal public position against the colonisation of Tibet. Among them was Australian cyclist Cadel Evans. His personal website sold “Free Tibet” t-shirts, and he promoted the cause during the famous Tour de France. </p>
<p>At Beijing, Evans complied with the International Olympic Committee expectation that athletes <a href="http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/evans-arrives-in-beijing-but-gets-warning-over-tibet-protests-93792">do not engage in political matters</a>, but once his commitment was over Evans flew to Switzerland to meet with the <a href="http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=22476">exiled Tibetan Olympic team</a>. </p>
<p>The annexation of Tibet by China is now complete. Its spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, remains in exile, and is derided as a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/19/dalai-lama-prayers-tibetans-terrorism">“terrorist”</a>. From a sport perspective, <a href="https://www.freetibet.org/news-media/na/olympic-story">athletes from Tibet</a> no longer represent that country. Tibetans are now Chinese.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152587/original/image-20170112-3967-5m0stp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Australian cyclist Cadel Evans took a vocal public position against the colonisation of Tibet.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tracey Nearmy/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Change agents</h2>
<p>How sports respond to an athlete’s sociopolitical sensibility is key. </p>
<p>In 2012, when amateur AFL player <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-21/pride-game-can-be-life-changing-event-for-many-in-afl-community/7647390">Jason Ball</a> became the first footballer to come out as gay, he was roundly supported by teammates – and, after a concerted effort, won the support of leading professional players in a campaign to welcome LGBTI athletes to sport. </p>
<p>The AFL endorses an annual <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/afl/sydney-swans/afl-takes-huge-step-in-first-pride-game-between-sydney-and-st-kilda-20160812-gqrb9s.html">“Pride Game”</a> between Sydney and St Kilda, replete with goal umpires <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-09/afl-launches-first-pride-game-between-sydney-swans-and-st-kilda/7703642">waving rainbow flags</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152588/original/image-20170112-18318-h2ec25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152588/original/image-20170112-18318-h2ec25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=237&amp;fit=clip"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Australian rugby union player David Pocock.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dan Himbrechts/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ball was given vocal support by Australian rugby player David Pocock, who said he and his female partner <a href="http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/pocock-palandri-to-seal-the-deal-when-same-sex-marriage-allowed-around-australia-20131025-2w5rw.html">would not marry</a> until their gay friends could do so. He was alluding to same-sex marriage not being legal in Australia. </p>
<p>One year later the marriage legislation had not changed, but the ARU was persuaded – in part because of Pocock’s advocacy – to produce an <a href="http://www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/wallabies-star-david-pocock-lauds-arus-inclusion-policy-which-will-aim-to-stamp-out-homophobia/news-story/27e8d7dcb575f8ee05743873bddc330b">“inclusion” policy for rugby</a> that focused on education against homophobia.</p>
<h2>Athlete protest: risk-reward</h2>
<p>How, why and when athletes take a stand on sociopolitical issues is a question of timing, context, purpose and strategy. </p>
<p>Sometimes, as with NFL star Colin Kaepernick, who has declined to stand for the national anthem because of what he sees as systemic racism in American society, there is substantial <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/news/archive/2016/08/colin-kaepernick-protest-nfl/498065/">public backlash</a> – even if his 49ers teammates are <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/colin-kaepernicks-teammates-give-him-an-award-for-courage/">not affronted</a> by his actions. </p>
<p>When NFL ratings fell this season, some suggested that Kaepernick’s politicising of the game had <a href="http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/209760366/colin-kaepernick-reason-nfl-ratings-down">prompted disaffection</a>. Only time will tell whether a kneeling protest will eventually be viewed more sympathetically: <a href="http://www.espn.com.au/olympics/story/_/id/17664885/olympic-sprinters-tommie-smith-john-carlos-support-colin-kaepernick-anthem-protests">John Carlos and Tommie Smith</a>, the villains-turned-heroes of the Black Power salute, hope so.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This is the first piece in a short series of articles on equality in, and access to, sport. Catch up on the others <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/sport-access-and-equality-34779">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70397/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daryl Adair does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When athletes take a stand on sociopolitical issues, they have a public profile by which to showcase their views. But they face criticism that it is not their 'place' to comment on sensitive matters.Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/694672016-12-12T03:40:59Z2016-12-12T03:40:59ZCelebrity voices are powerful, but does the First Amendment let them say anything they want?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149477/original/image-20161209-31391-6kl964.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Taking a knee during the national anthem isn&#39;t risk-free in the NFL.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Protesting-Dolphins-Football/4a2a88bed8f449cfab9062479a24dab6/1/0">AP Photo/Stephen Brashear, File</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When NFL player <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-oppressive-seeds-of-the-colin-kaepernick-backlash-66358">Colin Kaepernick</a> refuses to stand for the national anthem, or the cast of the Broadway musical “Hamilton” confronts the vice president-elect, or the Dixie Chicks <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/3/11/1193171/-Ten-Years-Ago-This-Week-the-Dixie-Chicks-Found-Free-Speech-Comes-at-a-High-Price">speak out against war</a>, talk quickly turns to freedom of speech. Most Americans assume they have a constitutional guarantee to express themselves as they wish, on whatever topics they wish. But how protected by the First Amendment are public figures when they engage in political protest?</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/orXogk3euMA?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Recently, celebrities have become increasingly vocal regarding the collective Movement for Black Lives, for instance.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Coming out publicly, whether for or against some disputed position, can have real consequences for the movement and the celebrity. However helpful a high-profile endorsement may be at shifting the public conversation, taking these public positions – particularly unpopular ones – may not be as protected as we assume. As a professor who studies the intersection of law and culture, I believe Americans may need to revisit their understanding of U.S. history and the First Amendment. </p>
<h2>Harnessing the power of celebrity</h2>
<p>Far from being just product endorsers, celebrities <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-009-0090-4">can and do use their voices</a> to influence policy and politics. For example, <a href="http://www.stat.columbia.edu/%7Egelman/stuff_for_blog/celebrityendorsements_garthwaitemoore.pdf">some researchers believe</a> Oprah Winfrey’s early endorsement of Barack Obama helped him obtain the votes he needed to become the 2008 Democratic nominee for president.</p>
<p>This phenomenon, however, is not new. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149474/original/image-20161209-31352-1uldoe0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149474/original/image-20161209-31352-1uldoe0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=237&amp;fit=clip"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gilbert du Motier Marquis de Lafayette, early celeb.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gilbert_du_Motier_Marquis_de_Lafayette.PNG">Joseph-Désiré Court</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since the birth of the nation, celebrities have used their voices – and had their voices used – to advance important causes. In 1780, George Washington enlisted the help of Marquis de Lafayette, a French aristocrat dubbed by some “<a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/123170/marquis-de-lafayette-americas-first-celebrity">America’s first celebrity</a>,” to ask French officials for more support for the Continental Army. Lafayette was so popular that when he traveled to America some years later, the press <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/4233634">reported on each day and detail</a> of his yearlong visit.</p>
<p>Social movements also have harnessed the power of celebrity influence throughout American history. In the early 1900s, after the National Woman Suffrage Association was founded to pursue the right of women to vote, <a href="http://www.historynet.com/womens-suffrage-movement">the group used celebrities</a> to raise awareness of the cause. Popular actresses like Mary Shaw, Lillian Russell and Fola La Follette, for example, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=QO79UClRsDMC&amp;pg=PA7&amp;lpg=PA7&amp;dq=national+woman+suffrage+movement+actress&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=EKlau1ccmV&amp;sig=bERJBYmVA4vtMwKoZZhoQ5RorZU&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwi-3rvW6OXQAhULjlQKHZOjAZoQ6AEINTAE#v=onepage&amp;q=national%20woman%20suffrage%20movement%20actress&amp;f=false">brought attention</a> to the movement, combining their work with political activism to push the women’s suffrage message.</p>
<h2>Celeb actions can move the needle</h2>
<p>The civil rights movement of the 1960s benefited from celebrities’ actions. For instance, after Sammy Davis Jr., a black comedian, refused to perform in segregated venues, many clubs in Las Vegas and Miami became integrated. Others – including Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, Dick Gregory, Harry Belafonte, Jackie Robinson and Muhammad Ali – were <a href="https://news.vcu.edu/article/Hollywood_celebrities_unsung_role_in_the_civil_rights_movement">instrumental in the success</a> of the movement and passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. These actors planned and attended rallies, performed in and organized fundraising efforts and worked to open opportunities for other black people in the entertainment industry.</p>
<p>By the 1980s, you could watch Charlton Heston and Paul Newman <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=7Q3QE-n8q4UC&amp;pg=PA154&amp;lpg=PA154&amp;dq=Charlton+Heston+and+Paul+Newman+nuclear&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=-eRL7vFhFg&amp;sig=rb4q3wEvuYDCpF9ztOnT3mSkfgs&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjTx9SN9OXQAhVKw1QKHaa9BDkQ6AEIRjAL#v=onepage&amp;q=Charlton%20Heston%20and%20Paul%20Newman%20nuclear&amp;f=false">debate</a> national defense policy and a potential nuclear weapons freeze on television. Meryl Streep <a href="http://www.pbs.org/tradesecrets/docs/alarscarenegin.html">spoke before Congress</a> against the use of pesticides in foods. Ed Asner and Charlton Heston <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=-OHQCwAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PA299&amp;lpg=PA299&amp;dq=Nicaraguan+contras+ed+asner+heston&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=dwjrso1QRO&amp;sig=yj8m0oS3JrWqTKiL7_4PyqZ4-hY&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjAmYfD9eXQAhUhrFQKHfbcD94Q6AEIIzAB#v=onepage&amp;q=Nicaraguan%20contras%20ed%20asner%20heston&amp;f=false">publicly feuded about</a> their differing opinions of the Reagan administration’s support of right-wing Nicaraguan militant groups.</p>
<p>Whatever you think of how well thought out their opinions are (or aren’t), celebrities have the ability to draw attention to social issues in a way others do not. Their large platforms through film, music, sports and other media provide significant amplification for the initiatives they support.</p>
<p>There is, in particular, a measurable connection between <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021849904040206">celebrity opinions and young people</a>. Most marketing research shows that celebrity endorsements <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/209029">can improve the likelihood</a> that young consumers will choose the endorsed product.</p>
<h2>Antagonism toward celebrity activism</h2>
<p>Celebrities have been important partners, strategists, fundraisers and spokespeople for social movements and politicians since the earliest days of modern America. Recently, however, celebrities speaking out about policy and politics have received some harsh responses. </p>
<p>Kaepernick, in particular, has received <a href="http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a48246/tomi-lahren-kaepernick-facebook/">scathing criticism</a>. Fans of his team <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3762239/You-never-play-NFL-Canada-49ers-fans-burn-Kaepernick-jerseys-national-anthem-114million-sport-star-refused-stand-protest-black-oppression.html">have burned his jersey in effigy</a>. Mike Evans, another NFL player, drew so much criticism for sitting in protest of Donald Trump’s election to the presidency that he was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2016/11/15/nfl-player-who-knelt-in-protest-of-donald-trumps-election-pledges-to-stand-for-anthem-again/?utm_term=.7c6cdf41259a">forced to apologize</a> and say he would never do it again. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/19/us/mike-pence-hamilton.html?_r=0">#BoycottHamilton trended on Twitter</a> after the cast of the Broadway show Hamilton addressed Mike Pence. </p>
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<a href="https://twitter.com/HamiltonMusical/status/799828567941120000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"></a>
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<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>President-elect Donald Trump jumped into the fray, tweeting that he does not support the public expression of sentiments like those of the “Hamilton” cast. </p>
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<a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/799972624713420804?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"></a>
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<h2>Unprotected speech</h2>
<p>All of this raises significant questions about speech, protests and the law. Often celebrities, commentators and pundits talk about being able to say whatever they want thanks to their right to freedom of speech. But this idea is based on common misconceptions about what the U.S. Constitution actually says.</p>
<p>What is allowed under the law starts with the text of the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/first_amendment">First Amendment</a>, which provides that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The language essentially allows for freedom of expression without government interference. The right to free speech includes protests and distasteful speech that one might find offensive or racist.</p>
<p>But, the First Amendment as written applies only to actions by Congress, and by extension the federal government. Over time, it’s <a href="http://faculty.smu.edu/jkobylka/supremecourt/Nationalization_BoRs.pdf">also come to apply to</a> state and local governments. It’s basically a <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/95-815.pdf">restriction</a> on how the government can limit citizens’ speech. </p>
<p>The First Amendment does not, however, apply to nongovernment entities. So private companies – professional sports organizations or theater companies, for instance – <a href="http://scholarlycommons.law.hofstra.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1135&amp;context=hlr">can actually restrict speech</a> without violating the First Amendment, because in most cases, it doesn’t apply to them (unless the restriction is illegal for other reasons). This is why the NFL <a href="http://www.michiganreview.com/the-nfl-vs-freedom-of-expression/">could ban</a> DeAngelo Williams from wearing pink during a game in honor of his mother, who had died from breast cancer, and fine him thousands of dollars when he later defied the rules and did it anyway.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149476/original/image-20161209-31370-1jq2fx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149476/original/image-20161209-31370-1jq2fx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">DeAngelo Williams is outspoken in supporting breast cancer research. The NFL can limit when he can display his position.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Seahawks-Panthers-Football/2777653831ae429aa42a301b9d7b3b01/16/0">AP Photo/Nell Redmond</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>How does all of this affect celebrities? In a nutshell, if a celebrity is an employee of, or has some kind of contract with, a nongovernment entity, his speech actually can be restricted in many ways. Remember, it’s not against the law for a nongovernment employer to limit what employees can say in many cases. While there are other more limited protections <a href="http://www.americanbar.org/publications/insights_on_law_andsociety/15/winter-2015/chill-around-the-water-cooler.html">based on state and federal law</a> that protect employee speech, they are incomplete and probably wouldn’t apply to most celebrity speech. Any questions about what a public figure can or cannot express, therefore, will start with the language of any contracts she has signed – not the First Amendment. </p>
<p>For better or worse, celebrities can make significant impacts on policy, politics and culture, and have been doing so for centuries. But speaking out can put them at risk. Celebrities can be fined by their employers, like DeAngelo Williams, have their careers derailed, like the <a href="http://www.savingcountrymusic.com/destroying-the-dixie-chicks-ten-years-after/">Dixie Chicks</a>, or <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2016/09/21/sport/colin-kaepernick-death-threats/">receive death threats</a>, like Colin Kaepernick. Even so, their involvement can provide an influential platform in promoting and creating societal change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69467/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shontavia Johnson provides consulting services for Johnson International Group LLC, an organization that provides business assistance to entrepreneurs and entertainers. </span></em></p>Americans enjoy a right to free speech, and some public figures really exercise that right. The Constitution might not protect them the way they think it does, though.Shontavia Johnson, Professor of Intellectual Property Law, Drake UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/663582016-10-07T17:39:07Z2016-10-07T17:39:07ZThe oppressive seeds of the Colin Kaepernick backlash<p>Ever since San Francisco 49ers quarterback <a href="http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000691077/article/colin-kaepernick-explains-why-he-sat-during-national-anthem">Colin Kaepernick said</a>, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” he’s been in the media spotlight. Before every game, the TV cameras fixate on him as he kneels in protest. And with each passing week, more and more <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/2016/9/11/12869726/colin-kaepernick-national-anthem-protest-seahawks-brandon-marshall-nfl">players around the league have joined him in an act of solidarity</a>.</p>
<p>In addition to troves of internet trolls and media commentators, the fierce opposition has included a handful of <a href="http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/an-anonymous-nfl-exec-reportedly-calls-colin-kaepernick-a-traitor/">NFL owners</a> and a <a href="http://time.com/4478542/colin-kaepernick-police-union-boycott-games/">California police union</a> that threatened to stop working at the home games. Even Donald Trump said his bit, <a href="http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/donald-trump-fires-back-at-colin-kaepernick-after-qb-calls-him-a-racist/">suggesting that Kaepernick leave the country</a>. </p>
<p>Some might think that Kaepernick’s words and actions, together with the subsequent backlash, represent a watershed moment. They don’t. Spanning back to America’s founding, there’s an entire history of blacks stepping outside of the social order – or protesting it – only to be told they can’t. </p>
<p>As a psychiatrist, I’ve long been interested in how racial identity affects mental health, and the chronic stress that racial minorities experience when they’re exposed to racist messages, particularly in the media. In the controversy swirling around Kaepernick, I see racially encoded messages about power, place and punishment of black people. Obviously, there’s a difference between antebellum lynching and social media outrage. But though the overt responses may have changed, the underlying hatred, disgust and impulses to punish prominent, “poorly behaved” black figures still remains.</p>
<h2>Taming the black male?</h2>
<p>During Reconstruction, blacks who stepped outside the social order risked their lives. </p>
<p>To enforce the racial hierarchy and police the boundaries of what blacks could say and do, whites often resorted to lynching. Although no one is exactly sure, <a href="http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/shipp/lynchingsstate.html">it’s estimated that over 3,400 blacks</a> were lynched or publicly murdered from 1882 to 1968. One of most famous examples was Emmett Till, who was murdered in Mississippi in 1955 for allegedly flirting with a white woman. </p>
<p>Economist Dwight Murphey has written that <a href="http://www.dwightmurphey-collectedwritings.info/mono/mono1.htm">lynching was different from other forms of violence</a>. Unlike, say, a domestic dispute or an act of revenge, it functioned to maintain the social order. It was, Murphey wrote, “motivated by a desire to vindicate the moral sense of community, and has as its target a specific person or persons.” In other words, it was used to enforce a racial hierarchy, foster a sense of community among whites, and ensure that black men knew their place.</p>
<p>Although the methods of lynching varied, it was common practice for white mobs, seeking to reaffirm the racial order, to hang or castrate the victim. (A number of psychoanalytic theories have sought to account for the phenomenon of castrations, but many <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/3704016">scholars agree</a> that castration served as the ultimate act of “taming” the black male, assuaging the fears and anxieties about uncontrolled black masculinity.) </p>
<p>As the number of lynchings decreased in the early 20th century, the mechanisms of enforcing the boundaries of black identity were reshaped. White majorities enforced social and civic confinement for most of the African-American community through <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/05/28/evidence-that-banks-still-deny-black-borrowers-just-as-they-did-50-years-ago/">redlining</a>, voting restrictions and Jim Crow laws.</p>
<h2>Jack Johnson put in his place</h2>
<p>For the few black athletes who had become famous by the early 20th century, the boundaries of acceptable black behavior continued to be publicly policed through racist media portrayals, searing criticism and public outrage. </p>
<p>Boxer Jack Johnson, after defeating Tommy Burns in 1908 to become the first black heavyweight champion, was publicly shamed. One boxing magazine called him “<a href="https://sports.vice.com/en_uk/article/the-war-on-jack-johnson-boxing39s-first-black-heavyweight-champion-versus-the-world-uk-translation">the vilest, most despicable creature that lives</a>.” </p>
<p>With his dominant beatings of his white opponents, brash personality and lavish lifestyle, Johnson was one of the first black celebrity athletes to defy the social mandate that a black man must be subject to the white man’s power. He was also often seen in public with white women, which was an appalling display for the time. After his defeat of Jim Jeffries (nicknamed the “Great White Hope”) in 1910, race riots broke out <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/43609313">across the country</a>. Some white men even <a href="http://fightland.vice.com/blog/the-war-on-jack-johnson-boxings-first-black-heavyweight-champion-versus-the-world">committed suicide</a>, resulting in the film of the fight being banned in many cities and states. </p>
<p>Johnson was eventually sentenced to one year in jail under <a href="http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Mann+Act">the Mann Act</a>, which had made it illegal to transport a woman “for the purposes of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose.” In truth, he had saved a young girl from a life of prostitution. Using trumped up charges, police had leveraged the woman into testifying against Johnson, and an an all-white jury convicted him on basis of train tickets he bought for her. </p>
<p>But in truth, this case was about punishing Johnson for disobeying the racial order inside and outside the boxing ring; even the <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/22/jack.johnson.pardon/index.html?eref=time_us">Justice Department lawyers decried his relationship with a white woman</a>. </p>
<p>After Johnson skipped bail and fled the country, civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=1AXZsjjRujAC&amp;pg=PA81&amp;lpg=PA81&amp;dq=Why+then+this+thrill+of+national+disgust?+Because+Johnson+is+black.&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=vUSkiO1aqv&amp;sig=XtsaQO3dOeV8SM6rLnqpV4wTAUs&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwiEqM_k0sHPAhUJ9WMKHQivB-AQ6AEIJzAD#v=onepage&amp;q=Why%20then%20this%20thrill%20of%20national%20disgust%3F%20Because%20Johnson%20is%20black.&amp;f=false">prophetically wrote</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Why then this thrill of national disgust? Because Johnson is black. Of course, some pretend to object to Mr. Johnson’s character. But we have yet to hear, in the case of white America, that marital troubles have disqualified prizefighters or ball players or even statesmen. It comes down, then, after all to this unforgivable blackness.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Los Angeles Times essentially demonstrated Du Bois’ point when it wrote to the black community, following Johnson’s win over Jeffries, “Remember you have done nothing at all… Your place in the world is just what it was.”</p>
<p>Throughout the 20th century, the media continued to relegate black athletes to a place of inferiority. Examples include <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/after-forty-four-years-its-time-brent-musburger-apologized-john-carlos-and-tommie-smith/">sportscaster Brent Musburger calling</a> the 1968 Olympic protesters Tommie Smith and John Carlos “a pair of dark skinned storm troopers” and Time magazine featuring a cover that <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/25/us/time-responds-to-criticism-over-simpson-cover.html">darkened O.J. Simpson’s face</a> to make him appear more menacing during his murder trial. Then there were the countless media portrayals of Muhammad Ali as unpatriotic for <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/43610014">refusing to be drafted</a>.</p>
<h2>Michael Jordan, submissive superstar</h2>
<p>On the opposite pole are the black athletes who are widely embraced by the American public and media. Not surprisingly, they are deemed “acceptable” because they are docile and uncontroversial (at least, off the court or field). </p>
<p>Perhaps the best illustration of this phenomenon is Michael Jordan, the NBA star who is arguably responsible for the basketball league’s global popularity. He’s the perfectly packaged ambassador for the sport. </p>
<p>The media portrayed him as apolitical, tame and well-mannered – an acceptable black athlete who was “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EihcRDRAy90">black but not really black</a>.” Image-conscious corporate advisers had effectively divorced him from inner city, hip-hop culture, placing him opposite from other more “street” players like Philadelphia 76ers star Allen Iverson, who was <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17430437.2010.491267?scroll=top&amp;needAccess=true&amp;journalCode=fcss20">once described</a> as the “living embodiment of hip hop in a basketball uniform,” a player who “refused to bend over backwards to accommodate the tastes of the mainstream.” </p>
<p>In 2011, long after Jordan’s playing career ended, a Nielsen and E-Poll Market Research study that measured appeal, public likability and awareness found that his personality attributes were off the charts: <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2011/09/22/the-business-of-michael-jordan-is-booming/#5be003143955">93 percent of those surveyed said they liked him</a>. </p>
<p>Yes, Jordan’s otherworldly talent explained a huge portion of his popularity. But it was arguably also due to his ability to be uncontroversial and seemingly disconnected from his race. </p>
<p>In 1990, when asked why he wouldn’t endorse Harvey Gantt, a black Democratic candidate for Senate in North Carolina, <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Second_Coming.html?id=BA5mPwAACAAJ">Jordan simply said</a>, “Republicans buy shoes, too.” (In 2001, the Washington Post <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/06/AR2008070602321.html">described</a> Gantt’s opponent, Jesse Helms, as “the last prominent unabashed white racist politician in this country.”) When given the opportunity to use his power and influence, he reduced himself to a shoe salesman. </p>
<p>Prior to his murder trial, O.J. Simpson was another superstar that exhibited appropriate, acceptable forms of black behavior. He was <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/new-espn-series-shows-how-oj-simpson-changed-advertising-and-it-changed-him-171919">lauded as</a> “the first [black athlete] to demonstrate that white folks would buy stuff based on a black endorsement,” while the CEO of Hertz rent-a-car, which featured Simpson <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W1hnR3kLwo">in a famous TV ad</a>, said he thought of the star running back as “colorless.” </p>
<p>Then there was Tiger Woods, who, before his marital infidelities, was worshiped as <a href="http://www.si.com/vault/1996/12/23/220709/the-chosen-tiger-woods-was-raised-to-believe-that-his-destiny-is-not-only-to-be-the-greatest-golfer-ever-but-also-to-change-the-world-will-the-pressures-of-celebrity-grind-him-down-first">“The Chosen One” in Sports Illustrated</a> and “A Universal Child” due to his multiracial identity. </p>
<p>Like Jordan, they had stuck to the same script: be humble, grateful and – most importantly – nonthreatening to the racial order. </p>
<h2>Where are we today?</h2>
<p>Just months before the Kaepernick saga started to unfold, Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton found himself, like Kaepernick, weathering criticism for not behaving appropriately. First he was <a href="http://www.si.com/nfl/2016/01/29/cam-newton-controversy-dab-dance-celebrations">celebrating too much in the end zone</a>. Then, after he lost the Super Bowl, <a href="http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/watch-cam-newton-abruptly-leaves-super-bowl-50-postgame-interview/">he didn’t act like a good enough sport</a>.</p>
<p>Critics of black athletes often claim they have “character” concerns – <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-it-comes-to-baseballs-ethnic-tensions-the-problems-run-deeper-than-bat-flips-49089">that they’re bothered by arrogance or poor sportsmanship</a>. But I wonder if the same social and psychological processes that fueled the phenomenon of lynching are the undercurrent of so much public disgust with Newton and Kaepernick. </p>
<p>As Newton <a href="http://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/nfl/carolina-panthers/nfl-blog/article56857428.html#storylink=cpy">told the Charolotte Observer earlier this year</a>, “I’m an African-American quarterback that may scare a lot of people because they haven’t seen nothing that they can compare me to.” </p>
<p>It’s almost like there’s a reflexive visceral reaction toward successful black males who step outside their socially prescribed boundaries. There is evidence that supports the pervasiveness of racial attitudes in the American psyche. In the 1990s researchers at Washington University and Harvard College <a href="https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/background/posttestinfo.html">developed a test</a> to measure implicit, or unconscious, bias for a number of characteristics, including race. When a large nationally representative sample of people took the test for racial bias, investigators found the majority of people had preference for whites over minorities.</p>
<p>Today no one can lynch a professional athlete, so the pressure to conform must be exerted more subtly. In this way, old expressions of racism are simply being recrafted and reshaped in modern, more socially acceptable forms.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66358/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>J. Corey Williams does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The controversy over Kaepernick's refusal to stand for the National Anthem isn’t a watershed moment. It's only the latest chapter in a long history of people trying to control how black people behave.J. Corey Williams, Resident Physician in Psychiatry, Yale UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/645252016-08-31T02:20:31Z2016-08-31T02:20:31ZWhy Colin Kaepernick is like George Washington<p>If you haven’t heard by now, the star quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, Colin Kaepernick, <a href="http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/08/colin-kaepernick-national-anthem-donald-trump">refused to stand</a> for the national anthem over the weekend. </p>
<p>This wasn’t the first time, and he <a href="http://www.espn.com/blog/san-francisco-49ers/post/_/id/18957/transcript-of-colin-kaepernicks-comments-about-sitting-during-national-anthem">plans to continue</a> until conditions for people of color improve: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I’ll continue to sit. I’m going to continue to stand with the people that are being oppressed.… When there’s significant change and I feel like that flag represents what it’s supposed to represent…I’ll stand.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>His has already been a controversial tenure as successor to Hall of Fame quarterbacks Joe Montana and Steve Young as the face of one of the most successful franchises in NFL history. He doesn’t fit the mold.</p>
<p>For starters, he’s black. (OK, biracial. But in America, he’s considered black.) Further, after achieving some success, reaching a Super Bowl a few years ago, and two consecutive conference championship games, his play has been bereft of consistency lately. He may lose his starting job to <a href="http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/158997152/blaine-gabbert-rebirth-49ers-jaguars-bust">Blaine Gabbert</a> – someone who, on his best day, is average by NFL standards. To top it all off, he now plays for a coach, Chip Kelly, who’s been <a href="http://www.phillyvoice.com/chip-kelly-eagles-racist-boykin-mccoy/">accused of racism</a>.</p>
<p>This is what makes his stand so amazing. With <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/colin-kaepernick-contract-2014-12">millions of dollars at risk</a>, he took a principled stand, one that quite literally may cost him dearly. Yes, he’s willing to sacrifice, something that’s the essence of patriotism. More on that later.</p>
<h2>Taking a stand by refusing to stand</h2>
<p>After observing the continued oppression of people of color in the United States, a country in which “freedom and justice and justice for all is stressed,” the quarterback decided to take action. He wants America to honor its promise to all Americans, not just the ones who are white. He says he will stand for the national anthem once things improve: when the country realizes the principles <a href="http://www.espn.com/blog/san-francisco-49ers/post/_/id/18957/transcript-of-colin-kaepernicks-comments-about-sitting-during-national-anthem">represented by the flag</a>.</p>
<p>Of course, this isn’t the first time a famous athlete has taken a public stand on the gap between American values and social practices in the U.S. The late, great <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/news/archive/2016/06/muhammad-ali-vietnam/485717/">Muhammad Ali</a>, at great personal sacrifice, refused to serve in the U.S. military because, as he stated: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“[the Vietcong] never called me nigger, they never lynched me, they didn’t put no dogs on me, they didn’t rob me of my nationality, rape and kill my mother and father.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Ali was subsequently stripped of his championship belts, and was banned from making a living during the prime of his boxing career. </p>
<p>Likewise in 1968, a time during which the country was polarized over race, two track stars added fuel to the fire. During the Olympics of that year, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, each of whom won medals in the 200-meter race, each raised <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/olympic-athletes-who-took-a-stand-593920/?no-ist">a black-gloved fist</a> on the podium as the national anthem was played. It was a means of protesting continuing injustice in the U.S. </p>
<p>They, too, sacrificed, as they both experienced <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/18/sport/tommie-smith-1968-olympic-games-reflection/">financial hardship</a> resulting from their actions.</p>
<h2>Why the quarterback’s critics are wrong</h2>
<p>So how did America react to Kaepernick’s one-man protest?</p>
<p>Let’s begin with the less thoughtful comments. As soon as the news broke, I knew it’d be just a matter of time before the word “nigger” would start flying in the quarterback’s direction. </p>
<p>My priors were confirmed. Here is some of the immediate reaction on Twitter.</p>
<p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/JamesERustle/status/769550527524966400"></a>
</blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/akaPRock/status/769573917501435905"></a>
</blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>These folk are easily dismissed on the grounds that intolerance of any kind is inconsistent with American values, of which tolerance is one. </p>
<p>These people undermine themselves. </p>
<p>Others, like <a href="http://theralphretort.com/colin-kaepernick-is-a-rich-pompous-piece-of-trash-for-insulting-the-usa-8027016/">blogger Ethan Ralph,</a> have leveled another criticism, one ultimately rooted in class, that goes something like this. America’s been good to him: He’s rich, after all! Since America’s been so good to him, the argument continues, he has no reason to criticize it. </p>
<p>Wrong.</p>
<p>First, such people don’t consider his life story, including whether he’s ever been victimized by prejudice.
<a href="http://www.craveonline.com/site/553013-colin-kaepernick-gets-personal-in-gq">He has</a>. This feeling <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/ellis-cose-revisiting-rage-77957">doesn’t disappear</a> when one “makes it.” Second, real patriots are <a href="http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/0198293585.001.0001/acprof-9780198293583">required to care</a> about one’s countrymen – regardless of one’s station in life. </p>
<p>Another set of critics, including former teammates, claim that the quarterback is <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/vikings/2016/08/28/alex-boone-rips-colin-kaepernick-national-anthem-49ers/89514450/">disrespecting the military</a> when he fails to stand for the anthem. </p>
<p>Wrong again. </p>
<p>The critics swing and miss on this big time. The military fights to protect American values and beliefs. Protest and dissent are “as American as apple pie.” In fact, America is founded on dissent and protest. In short, if these people have an issue with the quarterback, they should also be pissed off with the likes of George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.</p>
<h2>Why the quarterback is right</h2>
<p>Ultimately, American patriotism is about a commitment to the values on which a country is founded: freedom, equality and tolerance, among others, absent interference from others. But patriotism doesn’t end with commitment. It also entails the willingness to sacrifice one’s self-interest for the common good, so that the American dream is available to all. </p>
<p>Washington and his colleagues were so committed to the idea of America, they were willing to sacrifice their lives so that the rest of the colonists could pursue their dreams – well, the white ones, anyway.</p>
<p>Likewise, in the 1960s. Ali, as well as Smith and Carlos, were so committed to social justice that each did irreparable harm to their respective abilities to earn a living. </p>
<p>Colin Kaepernick is no different. In his fight for social justice, he’s willing to sacrifice millions in salary and endorsements, and perhaps even his career, to make life better for his fellow Americans. </p>
<p>So, who’s the real patriot: the quarterback, or his critics?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64525/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Like George Washington, Colin Kaepernick is willing to sacrifice for America.Christopher Sebastian Parker, Professor of Political Science, University of WashingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.